Ethereal realm is ruled by two beings; Shinigami and King of Hell. King of Hell has power over the souls died in less than two weeks, or in other words 'new comers'. They can be revived with a few ways. After those two weeks however, Shinigami takes control and souls can no longer revived without a pact. Five centuries is the maximum lifespan of souls, they will decay and get drained by the ethereal lake in that time. Then a new soul will be born from the lake and cycle starts over. Edo tensei is an exception to this rule; a soul revived with edo tensei is ripped from this cycle and will not be reborn until the jutsu is undone.
Shinigami watched Naruto from the Limbo, a heavy frown of distaste marred his features. The first thing – and only thing so far – he had done as a hokage was start repairs of the village. Then he dumped the seat to Light the Yondaime Hokage, requested several barrels of sake from toads through snakes, bought a hookah, a few kilos of tobacco for it and sealed himself with his project team, the last edo tensei and Stoic the Nidaime hokage away to the sealing chamber for several weeks. All the time the Stoic and his nemesis bickered.
Afterall…
Madara and Tobirama never really liked each other in life. Why would they in death?
That was until Naruto steered them in line, then they (mostly) focused on the project; Constructing a seal for dimensional travel. Using Naruto's shadow as a gate.
Naruto pooled everyone's knowledge on himself and shared it with others with his yin powers.
Only thing left was imagination.
It still took five weeks… but it was success.
Now, Naruto was watching slow rebuild of the village. He changed his wardrobe with black t-shirt and dark blue shorts. a dark brown cloak was hanging on behind his chair. He sent all ANBU to missions, his only 'guards' were Sage the Shodaime, Stoic and Light, all had masks with kanji for their 'names' and clad in dark green cloaks.
He took a swing from last of the sake from toads and a puff of smoke from hookah he brought to the office. He sensed the frown on Light's face every time he helped himself, this time was not different. He only once put his distaste to words but after a cold stare as a response he stopped trying. He dropped the bottle next to other empty ones… five bottles and he was only slightly tipsy. He sighed, he moped for a week now and he had to return to life. He grabbed his mask and hat.
"Light, I am going to take Jiraiya and research for Tsunade. I will leave a clone but you are in charge."
The deity was happy he was back on track but work called him so he left the blond alone for now.
"Stop it, Kisame." Itachi commanded the shark man. Kisame turned to the young man in confusion.
"If you were to go all out with that man, it won't end without cost. Also, if you take too much time-"
"-It will draw an attention of other shinobi in the area." A man wearing black robes and a black, blank mask finished the Uchiha's explanation. The raven sighed.
"Hello again, Stickless." Kisame chuckled at the nickname. Itachi's eyebrow twitched in annoyance at both the nickname and the man he recognized but the nickname sounded oddly was familiar. He tried to remember where he heard it before. Then it clicked.
"Sensei?" The man chuckled at the Uchiha's unsure whisper.
"No, but master sent his regards." Itachi hummed.
Kisame slammed down his sword to take the spotlight.
"Shall we kill them? I don't know the newcomer but others will not let us go."
The masked man turned to Konoha jonin. "You three, run."
"Do you have a death wish? They are-" In'ei cut Asuma.
"How shall I say this… if you don't run, you will definitely die from crossfire. You are only mid A-rank, Kurenai is barely an A rank and only S-rank ninja can keep up in an S-rank battle… well, Kakashi is scratching S-rank when he uses sharingan so he might not die from crossfire but no doubt he would get maimed pretty badly… especially when I get serious. I don't fancy lugging a living corpse so…" he did a shooing gesture with his hand. Asuma grunted and nodded. They flickered away. Kakashi paused a moment then he too flickered.
"It is complicated… I don't think we will win against him." Itachi calmly stated, his eyes were focused on the masked man.
"Eh?" was Kisame's response. He believed Itachi but it was rare – if not the first time – he said the odds were against them.
"We had a… 'fight' before. He deflected Tsukuyomi back to me. He also has a technique that paralyzes the target. I hadn't managed to get anything else before he left." Itachi put down his analysis. Kisame grunted.
"What shall we do then?"
"We are at a disadvantage. From the ease he dispatched me last time, I can say we don't have much chance against him. We retreat."
"Master has a message for you, 'your target is in Tanzaku Gai.'" He paused. "I would be cautious if I were you, my resources also said the Whispering Death is seen at that location." Then he was gone.
"Do you think he is lying?" Kisame asked. Itachi was silent for several seconds
"I don't know, but I can't think a reason for him to lie."
They followed the lead.
'That man was telling the truth' Kisame thought as they stalked the duo.
The white-haired old man was talking loudly with the young blond next to him and trying to flirt with girls much younger than him walking close enough. The blond and younger one was responding much quieter and much exasperatedly. He also was pointedly ignoring winks sent on his way by girls and some odd women who like what they see.
In short, they were polar opposites.
Itachi turned his sharingan on and hypnotized a fairly beautiful woman and sent her to the duo. She instantly caught Jiraiya's attention and swayed him off road.
"Naruto…" the blond didn't hear anything else. He chuckled and took the keys from the old man. He made a beeline to their hotel, the two Akatsuki in tow. He got in and made some green tea and waited for his assailants to arrive. He put the tea into a mug.
*knock* *knock*
He took a sip from his tea and got up. The knocking got more impatient.
"Coming." He opened the door. Slit blue eyes meet red eyes with tri-tomoe around pupil. Both were silent for a moment.
"Naruto-kun."
"Itachi." A beat.
*sip*
"You will come with us Naruto-kun." Naruto hummed.
"Very well."
He tailed after them, he took his tea with him. He sipped every once in a few minutes. They got out of the city.
*sip*
"Knock it off" Kisame growled. A moment passed.
*sip*
Kisame grabbed his sword and swung it horizontally to Naruto.
The blond blocked it with his tea mug.
He blocked Samehada with a tea mug and not even one drop was spilled. There was no scratch on the mug either. Kisame turned to Itachi and he detected around with his sharingan for any genjutsu. He didn't find one and shot a surprised glance at the shark.
*sip*
Kisame growled and made a full assault on Naruto. The blond elegantly blocked, dodged or parried every strike with a bored gaze. Several minutes of one-sided battle later Kisame was winded but Naruto didn't even broke a sweat.
*huff* *huff*
*sip*
Kisame growled again and lunged but he found himself on ground face-first with Samehada several feet away. The blond was sitting on his back. Itachi blinked, he didn't saw the blond move.
He didn't saw the blond move with his sharingan activated.
He activated his mangekyou.
'Tsukuyomi'
A beat.
Two.
Three.
*sip*
His eyes widened.
"Grr I'm gonna fucking kill you!" Kisame bellowed under Naruto, who had lost interest on the shark long ago.
"How much longer do I have to wait for you to realize it?" the question was asked to Itachi. He was confused.
"What do you mean, Naruto-kun?" Naruto sighed.
"You and your overly politeness. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, you were already an S-rank when our time was over. Why would you need to be stronger?" He clicked his tongue.
"You are in my genjutsu." Kisame bucked. Naruto jumped to a safe distance. He started weaving handseals.
"Wait, Kisame." The shark stopped short and turned a questioning gaze to the Uchiha. He sensed around with help of his mangekyou. He felt it when he used the next stage of his sharingan. He tried to break the genjutsu but it didn't even wavered. Then he sensed something else, something familiar.
The chakra signature.
He actually gasped. It was first time Kisame saw that reaction.
"It can't be…"
"Yes. Long time no see, Stickless. You have grown to a fine, young man."
"… Sensei" Itachi's voice was thick with emotion.
"Itachi-san" Kisame said unsurely. "we are capturing him… right?" He was ready for the withering sharingan-death-glare Itachi sent to him.
"No…"
"Yes" Naruto cut Itachi.
"Sensei, you will…"
"Not yet, however. I promised I will be hokage until I find someone capable to Hiruzen. I have my eyes on Tsunade."
Everything faded to black for Akatsuki duo.
When the light returned, they realized they were in the hotel again.
"Huh?" Naruto loved that reaction. He snickered a little.
"I will come to Akatsuki after that."
"Sensei, they will extract the bijuu from you if you come."
"Wait a minute." Kisame cut their conversation. "You are the hokage?" Naruto snickered again.
"Yes, the youngest and with shortest reign. I probably won't have my face on the mountain." He said with a grin. "Stay close, Tsunade is in this region. I will find you."
"Sensei, we heard the Whispering Death is here too. We should get out of the town or may risk an encounter with him." The blond laughed lightly.
"Whispering Death, you say? I know that guy. I am sure you won't have any problems with him."
"Are you sure?" Kisame asked. He looked behind over his shoulder, a quirk all nuke-nin share.
"Of course."
"And how are you so sure of that?"
"Do you have any problems with me?" A beat.
"I see." The shark grinned blood-thirstily. "Are those rumors true? Did you really destroy the royalist faction with Yagura single-handedly in less than an hour?" Naruto hummed.
"Guess they overestimated me…" Kisame hummed in slight disappointment. "Ao helped me to find underground bunkers. Otherwise I would spend an hour exploring… alright, maybe not that much…" he said nonchalantly. Kisame's smirk was back.
"And the rest?"
"Rest is true I suppose. I wasn't keeping track of ti-"
"ITACHI!"
Naruto had to bite his lip to not laugh at the face Itachi made.
Naruto arrived to a bar with Jiraiya, the old man said she was here. They saw a blonde woman with a brunet one. Jiraiya's eyes lit.
"Tsunade! Long time no see, princess!" He greeted his fellow sannin heartily. He got a scoff in return.
"Why are you here, Jiraiya? I thought three weeks in a hospital clearly said 'I don't want to see you again'." He laughed it off as they 'invaded' their seat. Naruto watched their bickering with a bored gaze. He checked out Tsunade – he was still a teenager and no matter knowing it was a genjutsu, she was good to look at. Her assistant glared at him; no doubt caught his gaze on Tsunade's bust. He grinned back. She flushed a little and focused back to the sannin duo. He decided Jiraiya wasted enough time with beating around the bush.
"No, Jiraiya! I said it before and I will say again I will not-"
"Sandaime has passed away." He swallowed to press down the sadness that simple sentence caused. "Konoha needs someone worthy for the seat." The duo shut up. All eyes on him.
"And that 'someone worthy for the seat' is me, I take it?"
"You are the best candidate." Tsunade snorted.
"No, go find someone else. I swore to never go back to that place." She thought about pouring more sake to her saucer but decided against it and drunk from the bottle directly.
"after what that place done…" she muttered after several gulps.
"and who is that 'someone else'? Kakashi isn't strong enough. Orochimaru has a blood feud with Konoha. Jiraiya…" they both turned to the white-haired pervert. "…self-explanatory."
"Hey!" Tsunade cracked a smile but still shook her head. Naruto sighed.
"Konoha didn't done anything to you, Tsunade." She glared at him and scoffed.
"You know nothing."
"I know everything. Dan, Nawaki, my parents… all died for Konoha, not killed by Konoha." He paused for Tsunade to digest what he said. A solemn air settled over them.
"I know you are hurt, I know you miss them, I know you just want to drink and gamble away your sorrows… but you already have done that for years. Also, no matter how much you drink or gamble, you can't bring them back. All you can do is return to life and if you really want to do something for them, make their dreams come true. Otherwise all you can look forward to is a bitter life." he took the sake bottle and took a big swing. Then got up from his seat to take his leave.
"Fine." Naruto looked at her. "Fine. But first, I want you to fight me. Let's see if your fists are as strong as your words." She grinned at him with more life than she had for a while. He lost himself on her caramel-colored orbs for a moment and his gaze raked her appearance again.
"You know, if you were closer to my age, I would definitely ask you out. No wonder Jiraiya is so obsessed with you." Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"Are you flirting with me?" Naruto chuckled.
"Perhaps… now, are you getting up or getting cold feet now?"
"I will use only one finger. If you win, I will give you my amulet and become hokage." She raised it a little to show it. "if you lose, you will treat me sake until dawn arrives." He chuckled in response.
"Very well. I will not use chakra, let's not totally destroy this place."
They dashed at each other. Tsunade swinging her right finger around and Naruto dodging it. He also sometimes threw light punches when opportunity arise, but nothing too hard. Almost like pointing out flaws in her defense.
Tsunade snarled in frustration as she made another high swing. Naruto dodged under it but didn't avoided the hidden attack.
*Smack*
*Yelp*
"Omph" Tsunade yelped as her rack smacked Naruto, causing him to fall down. There was a big red spot on his face.
…
…
*Gush*
Jiraiya rocketed back with power of a huge nosebleed. Shizune was gaping. Naruto pointed a finger at his fellow blonde.
"You cheated!" Naruto cried indignantly.
"What?!" Tsunade was equally indignant.
"Yes! And how dare you use a forbidden technique on me?!"
"What the heck are you talking about!"
"Kinjutsu: Boob slap!"
…
…
*Gush*
Just as Jiraiya recovered, he was blown back again. Shizune's brain decided to save her from this. She fainted. The blond duo deadpanned at them.
"Yield?" Naruto asked.
"Not a chance."
Tsunade huffed as she regained her consciousness. Naruto sucker-punched her on nose after he got bored. Which took 5 minutes. Jiraiya was snoring on ground, probably because of blood loss. Shizune was no better.
"I win." He oh so helpfully stated. Tsunade wanted to wipe that smug grin from his face but he was too fast for her. She perked up at the fact.
"Why don't you be Hokage?" it wasn't escaped her that the blond was toying with her in their fight. True, she was only using her one finger but the boy didn't used chakra in response. Naruto sighed.
"I can't be hokage, Tsunade. I am a jinchuuriki and I don't plan to waste my life for recognition from the people who hate my guts for just existing." When he put it like that, she can't really blame him. Still, the sentence pressed all the wrong buttons. She huffed again.
"Let's ditch them and get back to drinking." The suggestion, however, pressed all the right buttons…
End of Chapter
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